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25-06-13

Apartheid Israel: Indian Palestine Solidarity Forum

Mahatma Gandhi spoke out against the Balfour declaration from within South Africa and in the 1930s Gandhi and Abdul Gafar Khan were leaders of the resistance to the same British colonial rule that we were resisting in Palestine. It is thus no wonder that Gandhi had stated: “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that Englandbelongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs… Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.”

The solidarity continued after independence and the British inspired division of this great country. Gamal Abdel Naassr’s Egypt and Nehru’s India were founders and leaders of the non aligned movement during the cold war. Unfortunately, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fake peace process that initiated in 1989-1993 gave the pretext for apartheid Israel to break its isolation around the world. Israel established diplomatic ties with India in 1992. Ariel Sharon was the first Israeli prime minister to go to India on a state visit in 2003. Israel is now the second largest military supplier to India adding billions of dollars to the apartheid economy. But the Israeli “business” with India has developed in other areas. For example, over $1 billion in Israeli real estate “development” in India was announced in 2008.